John Locke
During the course of our research we have discovered the foundation of our human nature through John Locke’s perspective. Even though we read two different books written by John Locke we have come to the same conclusion that all humans are selfish. Locke's Works The Essay Concerning Human Understanding In The Essay Concerning Human Understanding, John Locke discusses the idea that until we experience a situation in our life, we can develop certain knowledge on that experience. There are two truths of knowledge, which can be gained through both fact and opinion. The knowledge that is gained from one another is not always accurate due to not knowing if it’s true. This type of knowledge is known as an opinion. The knowledge gained from life experiences is more accurate because we have gone through it- (we know what the situation is really like). Going through an actual experience will allow us to develop a clear understanding of the truth of the situation. This is more of a factual type of knowledge. Although, it’s the way we use the knowledge from our own experiences that shapes who we are as human beings. Our knowledge on the aspects of life shapes our reason, judgment, and lastly our attitudes, which later affects our actions, and therefore can affect everyone in the bigger picture. The whole conflict, which is what Locke explains, is that our human nature is that we are selfish. I believe that until we accept the truth about ourselves- (that we are selfish and strive to be the best) we can change our human nature, by putting an end to the competition. Without coming to a point of accepting who we are as human beings, we will eventually fall apart as a society. ' The Second Treatise of Government and A Letter Concerning Toleration John Locke raises uproar in questions and potential ideas for the future as well as a successful present. In his book, The Second Treatise of Government and A Letter Concerning Toleration, Locke brings up the importance of how to run a government without failing. It has to do with the basic principle of human nature, one being selfish. All humans are naturally selfish and act on impulses to benefit themselves. Locke suggests that in order to truly be happy and successful we need to work with others. Anyone can run a government according to Locke. All you need to do is go against the drive of human nature, to be able to cooperate with your partner to have a strong government and foundation for life. Sometimes being selfish can be beneficial to a society, but being too selfish may cause the situation to backfire resulting in a negative consequence. Once the foundation is set up, human nature may take over and the rulers can allow themselves to be selfish in order to keep the strength of the society alive. The question is when is selfish too selfish and when does our selfishness have the power to damage a society? Conclusion From reading both of our books, we have discovered the value of studying and understanding our human nature. Since we are poop interacting with each other, everyday, we gain certain knowledge from each other. Our knowledge is not only gained through interactions between other people but also our attitudes we have towards life. These attitudes will affect our actions and then later affect everyone in the society as time evolves. Therefore in order to understand our actions and the development of how we think, we have to first understand who we are (what our human nature is). By taking our actions and seeing how they have affected us, (all from our ideas- which can be developed from both feelings and discoveries) we can eventually come to a conclusion of why the event took place and distinguish the importance of it taking place. The importance of being able to do this, is to understand how our attitudes as human beings, affect our actions and what our actions can later do to our society. We believe our actions have the ability to either destroy or improve our society due to our selfishness. This thought process is reinforced through the readings of John Locke, which is the foundation of our beliefs.